The Hunted Berlin Part 1: 8:00 am - Time to wake up
by Green Kobold
Summary: Based on a web-series that now has it's own movie. Check out "The Hunted" on YouTube. There are hunted not only in the USA, but in other parts of the world as well. Ingo is one of them and he has a problem: VAMPIRES are out to kill him. He's afraid to face them alone, but who will help?
1. Chapter 1

8 a.m. – Time to wake up

By

Green Kobold

The young man turned on the little camera on his computer, He had prepared himself for this, washed his shoulder length, brown hair, brushed his teeth (just in case), shaved and even used a little make-up to cover up the results of having been stressed out for the last two days. The lines under his eyes, that had almost turned black from lack of sleep, were covered by at least three layers of skin-toned make-up, but he was unable to do much about the line of worry on his forehead where none had been until recently. At least he had never noticed it before.

As the camera was fading in he put on a serious and authoritative look on his face before starting to speak.

"Hello, my name is Ingo and I am from Berlin", he said in High German with a little hint of a Berlinish regional dialect.

"I have to warn you all." He made a little, dramatic pause looking as seriously into the camera as possible. "They are already in politics and economics. They have their seats in the media and the entertainment-industry. Everybody has heard of them, read novels or at least watched films. Nobody believes that they really exist." If he could have controlled the zoom-function of the cam, it would slowly have closed in for dramatic effect. But since he couldn't he just spoke the next words with as much weight and seriousness as he was possibly able to… while he was leaning into the camera.  
"But vampires do exist."

It took him only six attempts to get the shot right.

In the finished film he later uploaded on YouAir that was just the introduction. It was followed by a few minutes filmed with the help of his buddy Micha, a man of few words and a passion for his digital video-camera. The quality of that camera was considerably better than of the little webcam Ingo had used, so the cut in the film showed an abrupt increase in clarity.

Ingo was walking across Alexanderplatz, wearing his long, black leather coat and, while a street band was performing faintly in the background, spoke a text he had prepared before.

"Forget everything you know about the weaknesses of vampires. Crosses don't scare them, stakes through the heart tickle them at best, garlic doesn't keep them off and most of all sunlight doesn't kill them. The only thing that finishes them for good is a well aimed head-off-chop." With a bit of disgust in his voice and face he added: "Fortunately they automatically dissolve into thin air right after or else one would have to deal with a decomposing body." When saying this he felt glad he didn't have to fight zombies.

Here the film had a cut over to Ingo walking across the place on the eastern side of Berlin's ward, the Brandenburg Gate. As usual it was swarming with tourists, taking pictures. He simply continued with his speech.

"When you're bitten by a vampire you don't turn straight into one yourself. A single vampire cannot suck enough blood out of you with a single bite, so the vampire-virus it's injecting you with in the process, can take you over. But I guess several vampires at the same time could."

He was passing through the gate while a group of teenage tourists were making faces and waving at the camera.  
"Once you have the virus in you, but are not one yourself, vampires can smell you somehow and are being attracted to you. That's why we, who have been bitten, are called "die Gejagten" or in English "the hunted". The only way vampires cannot smell you is by swallowing garlic-pills. It seems to cover up the virus' smell somehow."  
The scenery changed a bit as he was strolling in front of the Reichstag, the building that hosts the German parliament.

"A few of us don't want to hide forever and so we became active. We call ourselves "slayers" and hunt the vampires ourselves. We exist worldwide… but, as far as I know, I'm the only one in Berlin. Why do I tell you all of this?"

A hard cut that hurt the eyes as the pictures quality dropped massively again, brought the viewers back to Ingo's apartment.  
"I have been informed that all known slayers, including me, are planned to get killed."

Even though he tried to keep a stoic cool, a shadow of sadness and desperation lied over his face as his mind quickly jumped back to the moment when he was sitting in front of his pc in the middle of the night and opened the e-mail that brought the news of his planned demise.

"I received a message from Bob in California that all slayers are to be murdered at the same time, worldwide, when it's exactly midnight between the 30th of April and the 1st of May, also known as Walpurgisnacht. It's the day after tomorrow." He made another short pause. "I just wanted to inform you what is happening. This might be my last message."  
When he turned the camera off he thought to himself, "I can't do this alone. I need help."


	2. Chapter 2

The following day consisted of a row of depressing rejections. Ingo asked close to everybody he knew to help him in one way or the other. But unfortunately he knew too many losers, who themselves barely had their lives on track. He also wasn't very cautious about how to tell people. Nearly everybody already knew at least one of Ingo's vampire-stories and one "friend" even went as far as to ask him if he could borrow some money in case Ingo got killed and would never demand it back. Others were just telling him to keep his silly stories to himself and leave, some in very offensive or dismissive ways. It slowly began to dawn on him that he was not being taken serious.

By the time it was late afternoon, he checked his little list of names he had put on paper and noticed there was only one name left he hadn't crossed out, yet. The young man wasn't very happy about asking his brother, Markus, with whom he hadn't gotten along well for a long time, but he was running out of options.

He tried to call, but couldn't reach him. So he rang Markus' girlfriend, Andrea, instead and told her what it's about. She informed him when Markus would leave his home for band rehearsal and that he could be caught on the way. Ingo could hear her giggle and mumble something that sounded similar to "moron" before she hung up properly.

Markus had just left the building when Ingo caught him. He wasn't pleased.

"Now you have completely lost it," Markus said in a unnerved tone as soon as he saw Ingo. He didn't even bother to greet him. "Why don't you ask one of your stupid friends?"

Ingo didn't get to greet him either, but concluded that Andrea had already spread the news and went straight into defence. "I've already asked them all."

"And?" was the only reply. "Well, nobody believes me."

Markus rolled his eyes. "That's what I thought." He went to move on his way and Ingo hurried after.  
"Man!" Why don't you believe me either? You're my brother after all."

"You want to know why?" Markus replied, still in his unnerved tone. "Ever since we've been children you constantly had those fantastic stories to catch attention."

"Oh, come on. You've been playing pirate as well," Ingo objected.

"Yes, as a child, but not still at the age of 20!"

Memories flashed in Ingo's brain of people asking him where the costume-party was or what he was trying to promote, as well as all the juveniles and drunks who had all been picking at him at random.  
"Not to mention your other stories like your ninja-phase."

"Hey, at least I had finished a self-defence course," Ingo threw in.

"And that was one of the few things you ever finished. There were other things like your biker-phase without even owning a motorbike or your knight-phase without even knowing how to ride…"  
Ingo interrupted him again: "At least I have learned how to fight with a sword."

"Right, show-fighting!" Markus exclaimed with sarcasm. "You have learned to pose, not to fight for real. And this vampire-hunter thing with this ridiculous cloak you have seen in some silly film is your latest. Are you not sweating in it all the time?"

Why "thing"?" Ingo asked now, ignoring Markus' question.

"Do you really think I didn't notice you trying to pick up gothic girls with that? Too bad it's too easy to look through and none will fall for it."

Ingo's desperation turned to anger. "Man, that's not true! I really was bit by a vampire and the only reason why I was able to chase it off was, that I had done the self-defence course!"

That wasn't the whole truth. He hadn't managed to chase it off, but rather to escape and run away. Anyway his self-defence skills were the main reason he managed to do so.

The version he had just been told didn't impress Markus, though. The expression on his face made clear that he was nothing but quietly annoyed. "Ok and how is the hunt for vampires going? Have you actually hunted one down?"

This caught Ingo completely off guard and he replied feeble: "Actually no. I haven't met another ever since."

Marcus let his hand go through his long hair before he burst out. "Well great! How about getting a real job? Or going on a diet to get rid of this belly?" he said while looking at Ingo's extra layers around his bellybutton. "Anything real, except your constant fantasies. Claiming that your life is threatened is going way too far for just catching attention!"

"Hey! That's not fair! In my fantasies I never went that far! Why don't you give me a chance for once?" The pain between his temples of blood shooting through it much too fast, felt murderous.

"You had plenty of chances, but I've given up playing along with your nonsense years ago and as long as you don't give any proof for your claims I won't even bother listening to you anymore." As he was turning away from his brother almost on his heel, he shouted one last time. "And now leave me alone. I'm late, thanks to you, and have my own problems to think of."

Ingo was dumbstruck, trying to think of something to say but it didn't come to him. For a second he thought he should go after his big brother, but his legs wouldn't let him.

His thoughts were racing. Markus was right in many ways. Yes, Ingo had gone too far with his attention seeking and yes, he has been running away from reality most of his life. When the vampire had attacked him, Ingo had been frightened, of course, but that was fear of physical harm rather than actual death like he felt it now that he knew he was about to be killed. In the aftermath of the attack he realized that something that could have been out of one of his favourite books, films or games just had happened to him in real life and after watching a whole bunch of, mostly trashy, vampire-hunter films he had quickly turned that into his new replacement personality. And yes, he did try to use it and get to gothic girls, but except for one they didn't fall for it. All the realisations were rushing over him in just a few moments and most of them were kind of shattering in some way, but none of them as much as seeing his own brother just leaving him behind, even though Ingo was absolutely serious about the threat to his life.

Finally, after years of ignoring the fact, Ingo realized that in reality he was all alone.


	3. Chapter 3

Later, when the sun was already setting, he found himself on a bridge across the river Spree. He had walked all the way from Prenzlauer Berg, lost in thought and not really seeing where he was going. He stopped on the bridge, leaning on the richly decorated balustrade, and watched the river flow for a minute. He felt there wasn't much left for him, but there was one thing he wanted to do before he had to face a vampire or some vampires on a killing spree. Ingo wanted to talk to his father one last time.

Unfortunately his parents weren't living in town, so he couldn't just go and visit them. The young man took out his mobile phone and chose the number the integrated address-book. His mother was the first to pick up the phone. They just exchanged a few words, mostly about him calling so seldom. He tried to make the conversation short, which wasn't easy and he later felt bad about cutting her off, but his urge to talk to his Papa was stronger. When his father finally got to the phone, Ingo didn't really know what he had wanted to say. "Hello Ingo, how are you?" he heard the calm voice of the older man.

"Hello Papa," Ingo said. He hesitated to continue, not knowing where to start.

His father noticed and asked: "What can I do for you?" Ingo woke up from his paralysation: "I don't really know. I guess I need your advice." – "You want an advice from me?" his Papa sounded surprised. "That's unusual. You never wanted an advice from me. At best it was money." With a little guilt in his voice Ingo replied. "Yes, I know, but this time it's different," – "Different in what way?" – "This time my life is in danger." Ingo heard his father sigh at the other end. "Is it another world-conspiracy like a few years ago?" – "Yes. I mean no! This time it's real!" There was a moment of silence. "Even if it's true I cannot help you."

Ingo felt a wave of sadness rush over him. "You don't believe me…"

"Can you blame me? Why don't you ask your friends?" – "They don't believe me either. The same is with Markus." - "And now you ran out of options. I understand.  
"Anyway I cannot help you. I still haven't fully recovered from therapy, yet." Of course Ingo knew of his father's cancer-treatment and didn't expect him to do any physical action. But somehow he expected something else than this form of denial.  
He thought for another moment before he spoke again. "I don't know what to do…"

Now it was his father's turn to hesitate for a moment, but then Ingo heard his calm voice again. "My boy let me tell you something. You've always been talented and intelligent, but unstable and your imagination is always running wild. You're constantly imagining being somebody else." He had a little break. "But be yourself for a change and trust in yourself and your skills."

Another little break. "All right?"

Slowly Ingo replied. "All right…"

"In your age it's long overdue to wake up and to face your problems," the older man continued. "Okay," is all Ingo could answer.

"I have to go now for another treatment-session. Don't worry too much and trust in yourself. I'll see you, my son." – "Till then, Papa."

The line disconnected and Ingo was looking at his mobile phone's display, lost in thought.


	4. Chapter 4

Walpurgisnacht. The night by which, according to old German custom, winter officially ended. It was named after St. Walpurga, protector against witches and other evil spirits. In older times people used to dress in scary costumes to chase away the spirits of winter and in some parts of the country, usually the farming areas, it's still being celebrated that way.

Not so in Berlin. Here it's just another excuse for having parties and concerts with a theme. Some of them resemble a copy of the American version of Halloween; others have nothing to do with it and the term Walpurgisnacht only serves as a date that is widely known. The following day, the 1st of May, is a national holiday and, in Berlin, since the 80ies known for street fights between the police and rioters who claim to be a political protest movement.

All this didn't bother Ingo. He was more concerned with how to survive an attack by vampires, literally out for his blood. Even though he had many options for going out, he just went home when darkness fell. His mind kept racing. What could he do? Run? Where to? As far as he understood they would find him anyway.

Hide? Where? It was just as pointless as running.

Fight?... Fight…

He had learned how to fight, after all. And not just, as his brother had claimed, for posing. Ingo's doubts were more about if his skills would be enough to fend off a couple killers who would probably go at him with swords themselves. Chopping their heads off was the way to rid the world of vampires, so it has become normal for hunted as well as hunters to learn how to be very proficient with long blades.

But still, it was probably the best chance he had.

So Ingo made some preparations and finally fell into a troubled sleep after going through countless fight scenarios in his head.


	5. Chapter 5

Ingo woke up when the sun arose. Even though his sleep had been brief and troubled he felt a bit rested and more clear-headed. Another thought had come up. What if the vampires didn't bother with swords and would simply shoot him? There was a risk there. Ingo didn't own any armour, even less a bullet-proof one. On the other hand he was living in a big city and a shot wouldn't be unnoticed unless a silencer was used. The young man came to the conclusion that if that was the case his chances for survival were higher if he was nearby a larger group of people where any attack would be noticed. Ingo knew where that would be as the biggest demonstration, with possible riot was announced to be in Kreuzberg today. Emergency ambulances would be there, too, if necessary. While he slowly made his preparations, he formed a plan in his head where he would go and how he would proceed.

His simple breakfast of bread and eggs felt like it had never tasted so good before. The sun was shining, even though the weather was cool and it appeared to him as if there had never been a more beautiful day. Funny how he had never noticed how great it could feel simply to be alive.


	6. Chapter 6

He left his apartment and used the subway to Friedrichshain. On the way he was going through some possible scenarios again, but this time it was more calculated and less nervous.

As soon as he arrived he was looking for where the demonstrators and the police were gathering. He found the demonstrators first and mixed in, not bothering to check what it was this time they were demonstrating for or against. Chances were that the majority of them didn't know it themselves. He felt much safer surrounded by a crowd and kilometres away from his apartment which, he was sure, would be the focus of the vampire's attack. He hoped they wouldn't destroy something out of frustration that he's not there. Burglaring his apartment wouldn't be worth the effort anyway. He owned nothing of much worth except, perhaps his superhero comics. He would be pissed off if anything happened to his Batman-collection.

Feeling safe and anonymous in the crowd, he didn't pay much attention to his whereabouts in it and was also distracted by a cute, young punk-rocker with purple hair, who was hanging with a group of people who looked like her friends. For a brief moment Ingo was wondering if a punk-rock-style would look good on him and if punk chicks were easy to get, when he was suddenly seized with iron grips by the arms, swiftly pulled to the sidewalk of the street and into an open building.

What the…?!

They were in the middle of Friedrichshain, with many apartment-houses around and the vampires couldn't possibly know where he was, yet, it appeared that not only had they found him, but were also so strong, quick and professional that he was already through the front building and in the stone-floored backyard, where Ingo was standing in a roughly 20 times 20 metres area surrounded by buildings, before he could react in any way. He even forgot to scream or have a look at his opponents, until they had thrown him to the floor.

As Ingo was lying on his back he caught a glimpse of the two tall men with sunglasses and short-cut, black hair, right in front of him, who were pulling out sabres out of their long, beige cloaks. "No guns", he thought while rolling backwards and unto his feet, as he had been taught in the self-defence course.

A whiz through the air warned him from the danger coming for his throat, which he avoided just in time by ducking a broad-bladed tulwar-sabre, the burlier one of his opponents had swung at him.

While he was ducking, he grabbed for his own blade he had been hiding under his black leather cloak. As the second vampire (for Ingo didn't doubt them to be such) was trying to stab him with his less curved and slimmer-bladed kilij-sabre, Ingo improvised by simply slapping the blade aside, while pulling out his own sword: a original, early 19th century, Prussian cavalry sabre, called a "Blücher". He was lucky he had found this excellently preserved and fully functional weapon online and even thought he had purchased it at a fairly low prize, it was still the object he had spend more money on than on anything else he had ever owned.

Presenting his own blade didn't impress his opponents at all though and they continued with their attacks.

As he noticed they were following a certain pattern. They took turns of two attacks each with the bigger and heavier man, armed with the big tulwar, giving strong, mighty blows, while the slimmer one with the slender-bladed kilij made quick, stingy thrusts. They also were well coordinated and kept Ingo on the defence for what felt like an eternity to him. In reality it was just a few seconds. A especially heavy blow from above by tulwar-man made Ingo go down on one knee and even though he was totally stressed, he somehow managed to deflect a thrust from kilij –man right before it was followed by knee to his face. It hit him right on the bone above his right eye and gave him enough drive to roll back again. Yet this time he didn't manage to roll back on his feet and fell flat on his bottom, holding up his sword in a futile attempt to ward of an attack.

Fortunately it didn't come.

The stars in front of his eyes were clearing and the pain on his forehead rising when he saw the two tall men grinning at him, while short, red flashes of light from behind their sunglasses were proving them to be vampires as Ingo had suspected them to to from the start.

They were waiting and obviously seeing this as some sort of cat-and-mouse-game, with Ingo as the mouse.

He also noticed a third figure now. A shorter man, holding a camera in his hands, who must have been filming the whole attack.

Ingo forced himself up against the wall behind his back now, his head buzzing.

Stiff like a robot he grabbed into his cloak with his free hand to pull out something he didn't get the chance to, yet. The vampires were snorting in mockery as they saw that it was a small, round buckler made of steel. He now held this little, centre-gripped shield, which was about 30 centimetres or a foot in diameter, in his left hand.

He remembered a lesson from his self-defence teacher and took a deep breath, letting the pain from his forehead flow out and focusing on what lay ahead of him.

"Let's see what you can do with that," tulwar-man said referring to the buckler and started the next attack.

This time the two vampires were going for one strike or thrust at a time, taking turns again. He felt it was much easier now. Their pattern of attacks was almost as if they were helping him!

First he was deflecting the strikes and thrusts and they quickly started to look frustrated, so they became a bit bolder, overreaching. Ingo switched to avoiding now, keeping his calm. He noticed they were not that well coordinated after all and their previous success was due to his confusion from their unexpected assault. No reason to get overly self-confident, though, he thought to himself as a thrust from the kilij came scaringly close to his face at one point. The adrenalin-rush made his senses and movements faster and he seized the chance given from kilij-man by overreaching, by stepping forward, past his point, slamming his buckler in vampire's face as revenge for the kick and quickly wrestling him down by placing his leg behind the vampire's leg and grabbing him around a shoulder, his weapons not hindering him in the process. Surprised for a second, both vampires gave angry growling sounds and tulwar-man made a savage strike for Ingo's head which the intended victim just managed to duck. The sharp blade whizzed through Ingo's long hair, severing several of them on the way. Again Ingo went in for a wrestling-technique, grabbing his opponent's arm and sent him stumbling in the direction of his buddy, who was in the process of getting up again. They went down together, cursing and swearing in a foreign language.

The two men got up together. They had lost their sunglasses so the red flashes in their otherwise dark eyes were clearly visible. Kilij-mans side of the face was swelling where Ingo had hit him. Ingo was ready to take the next attack, but instead something else happened: they started to argue among each other.

Ingo didn't understand the language, but in those brief seconds he knew that he could not only give them a good final fight, but could actually win! Unless, of course, those who would slay him stopped arguing and teamed-up more effectively. He had to attack himself to prevent that.

He went for the bigger vampire first who just managed to block Ingo's attack. Seeing his opponent stumble a bit, he instantly went to the other man. He continued to attack both in quick succession one after the other for a few seconds until the bigger one launched an attack of his own, which Ingo answered with a quick upward-strike of his cavalry-sabre severing tulwar-man's hand about halfway between his wrist and elbow. Ingo expected a gush of blood as he had seen in several movies, but there was surprisingly little and it seemed to vanish into thin air as it touched the ground. A suppressed grunt came from the mutilated would be killer.  
Ingo didn't have any time to wonder at this proof of his attackers not being human, but hat to defend against kilij-man's attack. Ingo's timing was perfect and he trapped his opponent's weapon-arm with his own left. Before he could react to this new situation, the Prussian cavalry-saber went through the vampire's neck, which didn't seem to offer no resistance. A blinding flash of light came out of the neck's stump and suddenly there was nobody there anymore. The decapitated vampire had disappeared, clothing and all.  
Ingo swore, as the flash had caught him unawares and left him with a blind spot. This was the very first time he had killed a vampire and even though he had read about the reaction on the internet, the flash of lightning was stronger and more extreme than he had imagined.

Trying not to panic due to his blindness, he moved his head around trying to see were the other vampire, who had lost his hand, was.  
There was a angry shout from one direction and Ingo saw a shadow move towards him with the tulwar in the remaining hand raised to strike. Ingo managed a relatively clumsy, but still good enough deflection followed by another strike to a neck, which again didn't seem to offer much resistance. This time, though, Ingo closed his eyes in the right moment.

He opened his eyes after two or three seconds.  
His attackers were gone.  
He had won and survived.  
An unexpected calm got hold of him.  
Then he noticed that he was still not alone. The vampire's cameraman was still there, backing up towards the exit of the backyard with the camera still on Ingo, who now spontaneously went after him.  
The race was short, even though the cameraman tried to run as soon as he noticed Ingo attacking. A single slash of Ingo's blade, finished it. When the vampire had vanished, the digital-camera was still there, lying on the floor and running.  
Ingo picked it up.  
Outside he could hear the demonstration taking it's course oblivious to what just happened not far away.


	7. Chapter 7

Late the next day Ingo uploaded a new video on YouAir showing him sitting at the table of his living-room. The quality of the picture was remarkably better than of his previous video filmed with his webcam. He also looked better; rested, with, apart from where a bruise had developed above his right eye, little make-up and much more relaxed than before.

"Hello again. As you see I'm still there. I've been reading the comments on my previous posting and noticed that the majority thinks this all to be a mere prank by some dude with too much spare time. Well, I survived the attack and I have proof for it. Watch this."  
The video switched to the part the vampires had filmed. The camera had been switched on just as they had found him. They followed him for about thirty seconds before they grabbed Ingo who had a look on his face that was a mix of confusion and panic (he made a mental mark to practice cool facial expressions at any situation as he actually felt embarrassed). The fight followed, his despair, his pulling himself together and kind of unexpected victory clearly visible, concluded by Ingo chasing the cameraman. Fortunately the flashes of the decapitated vampires were not as blinding as in real life and there even was a clear glimpse of one of them having red, glowing eyes. Ingo was glad that had been caught on cam. The whole recording took less than three minutes and it was integrated into the video uncut and unedited to make sure it looked authentic. Afterwards the scene switched back to Ingo at his table.  
"They failed to get me this time, but they might try again. There are also more hunted out there, who have been hiding. Join me. It's time to get back at them. Don't be a hunted, be the hunter." After a short break he added: "please like this video, share it and contact me by e-mail. The address is in the video description. Thank you very much."  
When he was finished uploading the video, he leaned back smiling. For the first time in his life, he felt as if he had a purpose.

To be continued…


End file.
